LOWER GWYNEDD — Aaron Rodriguez is not the first wrestler to suffer a major disappointment.

But he’s bound and determined not to suffer another one.

The Wissahickon High senior lower weight, fresh off earning his 100th career win, can still recall last season’s Southeast Regional Tournament at Oxford High when his promising season came to a crashing, and yes, disappointing end.

A first-round win put Rodriguez in the quarterfinals where he faced Strath Haven senior Tyler Clapp, the District One South tournament runner-up.

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Clapp came out on top, 7-5, a loss Trojans head coach Anthony Stagliano said was partly his fault.

“I didn’t know (Clapp) was good on top,” Stagliano said, “and I should have left Aaron on his feet instead of taking (the down position).”

The setback was tough, but Rodriguez was still on track to earn a state berth through the consolation rounds.

But in his next match, Rodriguez dropped a controversial, 6-4 decision to Garnet Valley’s Fred Alderman. The setback came via an Alderman takedown at the third-period buzzer, but earlier in the match an apparent Rodriguez takedown was waved off when Alderman was injured.

“I could see giving the injury timeout, but why take away Aaron’s takedown?” Stagliano still wonders.

His season was over, but Rodriguez was just getting started.

“It’s always bad when you’re really close,” he said. “I could have accepted (the loss) if I’d been pinned or teched, but I felt like I had kept up with him. I was right there, and it should have gone differently. And once I didn’t make it, getting to states became my mission.

“I would have gone back in our (practice) room the next day, but it wasn’t open. But less than a month later I was back in the room.”

And that’s where Rodriguez has been for the majority of the time since, taking breaks only to work out at Norristown High School over the summer or participate in the Disney Duals in Orlando, Fla.

“I’ve been in the room as much as possible,” the senior said. “I’ve been lifting, running, I’ve really only had a couple of weeks off.”

It’s been a long road for Rodriguez, who began wrestling in seventh grade, only after he’d been cut from the basketball team.

“My pop told me to join the (wrestling) team,” he recalled. “I was playing football then, but I’m not that big, and you really need size to play football or basketball.”

Rodriguez found a home on the wrestling team, although in his early days he admitted to getting by on his physical tools.

“I was comfortable just using my strength and athleticism,” he said. “Those first two years, it was all strength.

“It wasn’t until the summer before ninth grade that I really concentrated on things like technique.”

As a freshman, Rodriguez was stuck behind a senior, and not really sold on the sport.

“I was still playing football,” he said, “and wrestling was just another sport.

“I dropped to 106 and got a couple of wins (14, actually). And it wasn’t until that summer that I really picked it up.”

That summer’s work paid dividends when Rodriguez won 33 matches as a sophomore and reached regionals. Last year, he tacked on 37 more victories, but disappointment was waiting for him at the regional tournament.

Along the way Rodriguez reached the coveted century mark in victories, earning No. 100 recently via a first-period fall at Pottsgrove.

“I never would have thought, when I was a freshman, that I’d be looking at 100 wins,” he said. “But time really flies.”

This season, Rodriguez is off to a 17-2 start, and has no doubts he’s capable of wrestling on Pa.’s biggest scholastic stage in March.

“This summer, when I was in Florida for the Disney Duals, I was wrestling guys from all around the country,” Rodriguez said, “guys who were state champs or state runners-up, and I was staying with most of them. That’s when it hit me that I can compete at this level.

“I had never really experienced that high level of wrestling until I got to districts or regionals around here. It was then I felt that I belonged.”

For now, there is one last dilemma, whether Rodriguez will compete at 126 or 132 pounds in the postseason. That decision has still not been made.

But until then, Rodriguez will continue on his mission to erase a major disappointment.

“That’s my primary goal,” he said. “In the summer and fall I’m running around everywhere, but when winter comes I don’t have much of a social life.